Never Tempt the Devil

 Yesterday my start was in Agualonga in a warm and comfortable albergue 

Bota Rota

That had a little black cat named Kali

I was using Camino Ninja for the list of cities along the way and Wise Pilgrim for the GPS signal so I would know my location on the walk.

The towns I would walk through to get to my ultimate destination of Valença (listed by Camino Ninja):

O km Agualonga 

0.8 km      Sào Roque

1.7 km      Rubiàes 

6.5 km      Cossourado

9.7 km      Fontura

11.8 km    Paços

13.5 km   Pedreira

17.0 km   Cristélo Cóvo

18.4 km   Valença

The day in pictures began like this:

Agualonga 

The river Coura in frame 

Rubiàes  

Me in frame

Cossourado

Tree in frame

Fontura

Jesus in frame

I usually never take pictures of Jesus, but this struck me because it was "framed" and I wanted "frames" to be the theme of my blog when I finished my walk today.

When I got to Fontura at 9.7 km, I felt like I needed to stop and there was a small bar/café where Allison from Sacramento was stopped. We had been passing each  other for days. Her mom had walked on to their Alburgue a few kilometers down the road. We chatted and I had a cold drink but I knew something was different this time. 

Tens unit with shell 

I have a tens unit packed in my bag that I haven't used since the first days on the Camino Frances. I didn't picture it when I showed what I carry because I had planned to leave it behind. I didn't think I needed it.

But I never did leave it and now I realized that to keep walking I needed it. The tens unit gives off small electrical impulses that somehow fool the brain and interrupt pain signals. This is my very unscientific explanation of how it works, but, to some extent, it works.

I had taken aspirin slathered on fisiocrem and nothing worked for long. I must have strained my back the previous day going uphill without realizing it, because this day was not that strenuous and I was having a rough go.

I usually stop once or twice at a café on the day's walk but I found after Fontura's stop that, again, something was off. I didn't want to stop but I couldn't keep going. 

While walking, all of a sudden I fervently prayed. I wear a medicine bag that was given to me awhile ago and it reminds me every day when I walk how grateful I am that I made it this day. 

I was grateful, I was lost, I prayed for those more in need than me, my friend Ishmael, his mom and other's, and I asked for help because I was failing at this. There was an emotional upheaval that felt cathartic and like a release and a lot of other indescribable things going on.

(Some pray to Brahman, Allah, others to the Great Spirits, some to God, others to Mary. I don't want to get bogged down here. Bob Dylan sings, "You have to serve somebody, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord, but your gonna have to serve somebody.")

I prayed to my maker. I will leave it at that.

Nothing noticably changed. It was the first time in more than 40+ days of walking, more than 600 kilometers, that I felt I couldn't do this. 

I needed to stop  in the next town, again. By the Camino Ninja and Wise Pilgrim apps, the last town I left was Fontura at 9.7 km. There were still  three more towns, Paços, Pedreira and  Cristélo Cóvo and 9 km more before the town I was to stay in, Valença.

The café that I stopped at was Café Joào. Kind proprietor, terrible soup. I brought him my Camino Ninja app and showed him all of the listed cities and gestured could he help me to know exactly which city I was currently in. He looked carefully at the list, then said "Valença." 

He took me over to a huge poster on his wall and pointed and said "Valença." He pointed to the bottom left and said "Spain." I replied that it was the most beautiful city! 

I don't know where those other 9 kilometers went. All I know is that this was more than "Camino Magic."  I'm gonna call it 

Mí Milagro.

Lesson I learned:

Never tempt the devil to enter your life, even if it's as a broma

Johnny Cash sings "go tell that long tongue liar...tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down." You can here it here:

https://youtu.be/DQTCS6aWRSc?is=8GfL2YbNC19ZQCgG

(Scroll over to play)